This invention relates generally to an electric heater or electric heat exchanger for the vaporization of fluids.
The most relevant prior art known to applicant herein is that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,172 issued to Ciciliot et al.
Home heating fuels have risen to and remained at relatively high prices over the last decade. Accordingly, many in the art have realized the need to provide a more efficient energy output from such widely used fuels as No. 1 and No. 2 grade home heating oils.
Various systems to preheat home heating fuel oils have been developed in the art. It has been known, for example, to preheat a specified volume of liquid fuel oil before it is atomized in a spray nozzle and subsequently ignited. Such systems have improved fuel efficiency to a certain extent but, typically, have required a large heat energy input for a relatively low increase in efficiency.
It has also been known in the prior art to utilize spiral coil electric heating elements in various modes to heat or preheat fuel oil to improve efficiency.
One system which has been developed in the art has been the bypass atomization nozzle. In place of the conventional fuel line and atomization nozzle, a portion of the liquid fuel which is not atomized is returned via a bypass line to the fuel supply tank and again pumped into the fuel line. Such bypass systems have resulted in a more efficient oil burn and hence a higher energy output.
Most of the efficiency improving systems of the past decade have required an entirely new system. Thus, the homeowner has been faced with the dilemma of either buying an entirely new furnace at a high cost or of keeping his old furnace and continuing to pay high monthly or quarterly fuel bills. For example, the known pulse combustion heaters have been effective in improving fuel efficiency but have required the purchase of an entirely new system by the homeowner.
Prior art fuel energy efficiency improving systems have proven very costly to machine and manufacture. They have not recognized the need of a homeowner to purchase a system by which he can simply and economically modify his existing heating system to achieve a more efficient heat energy production.
Of course, efforts have also been made to improve fuel efficiency for larger industrial installations with most encountering the same problems as outlined above.